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PaperclipPerfector  3mo ago (text post)   1164 thread views

Transnational Thursday for September 25, 2025

Transnational Thursday is a thread for people to discuss international news, foreign policy or international relations history. Feel free as well to drop in with coverage of countries you’re interested in, talk about ongoing dynamics like the wars in Israel or Ukraine, or even just whatever you’re reading.

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Or why not just straight up report whatever some state propaganda organ says?

Why would the Russian/Ukrainian/Isreali MoD ever lie? Or why would Hamas or any of constituting parts for that matter? Surely we can uncritically re report their press releases, often with barely acknowledging where said statements come from and that won't lead these organisations to try to use us to launder propaganda?

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A motte is a stone keep on a raised earthwork common in early medieval fortifications. More pertinently, it's an element in a rhetorical move called a "Motte-and-Bailey", originally identified by philosopher Nicholas Shackel. It describes the tendency in discourse for people to move from a controversial but high value claim to a defensible but less exciting one upon any resistance to the former. He likens this to the medieval fortification, where a desirable land (the bailey) is abandoned when in danger for the more easily defended motte. In Shackel's words, "The Motte represents the defensible but undesired propositions to which one retreats when hard pressed."

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